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Johnny Knoxville
Philip John Clapp, better known as Johnny Knoxville, is an American comic actor and daredevil. He has been featured in a number of films, but is best known as the co-creator and principal star of the MTV series Jackass and its subsequent films. Career Knoxville credits a copy of Jack Kerouac's On the Road given to him by his cousin, country singer/songwriter Roger Alan Wade, with giving him the acting bug. After graduating from South-Young High School in 1989 in Knoxville, he moved to California to become an actor, and at first appeared in commercials and as an extra. Not getting the big break he had hoped for, he began writing and pitching article ideas to various magazines. He also attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on a scholarship, but dropped out within two weeks. An idea to test self-defense equipment on himself was picked up by the Jeff Tremaine-helmed skateboarding magazine Big Brother, and the stunts were filmed and included in Big Brother's Number Two video. Knoxville's antics became a staple for Big Brother, whose colorful cast of contributors also included Chris Pontius, Steve-O and Dave England. ''Jackass'' Eventually, Knoxville, Tremaine, Sean Cliver and Dave Carnie produced a pilot that used Big Brother footage along with footage from Bam Margera's CKY videos, and with help from Tremaine's friend, film director Spike Jonze, they pitched a series to various networks. A deal was made with MTV and Jackass was born. Knoxville also participated in the Gumball 3000 for Jackass along with co-stars Steve-O and Chris Pontius and Jackass director Jeff Tremaine and producer Dimitry Elyashkevich. Prior to Jackass landing on MTV, Knoxville and company turned down an offer from Saturday Night Live to perform similar stunts for the show on a weekly basis (Knoxville eventually did host SNL in 2005). When bidding was going on for the show, MTV and Comedy Central were having a bidding war for the rights for the show. Eventually MTV won the war and thus Jackass was born. Film and television roles Knoxville has been in several feature films, most notably was starring opposite Seann William Scott in Jay Chandrasekhar's adaptation of The Dukes of Hazzard. He has also worked with director John Waters in A Dirty Shame and starred in Daltry Calhoun, written and directed by Katrina Holden Bronson and produced by Quentin Tarantino. In The Ringer, Knoxville was cast as an able-bodied office worker who joins the Special Olympics to pay for a surgical operation for his gardener. He played a two-headed alien in Men in Black II. He also starred in the movie Lords of Dogtown as "Topper Burks", made a minor appearance in the 2000 movie Coyote Ugly, and was featured as a guest voice on an episode of King of the Hill. Knoxville appeared as a supporting character to The Rock in the 2004 remake of Walking Tall. He also guest-starred on the pilot of the show Unhitched. Knoxville is slated to appear in the John Madden-directed adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel, Killshot. Knoxville guest-starred in a Season 3 episode "Prank Wars" on Viva La Bam, in which he and Ryan Dunn trashed Bam Margera's Hummer, among other pranks. He often appeared in episodes of Nitro Circus, along with Mat Hoffman and Jeff Tremaine. Personal life Knoxville has one daughter named Madison, he has a heart tattoo on his chest with her name on it. She can be seen in the credits for Jackass Number Two. On February 1, 2007, Knoxville and his wife of twelve years, Melanie, filed for legal separation. Shortly afterwards, they filed for divorce in July 2006. They were married on May 15, 1995. When he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he has said he has a girlfriend now. Her name is Naomi. On December 20th, 2009, a new baby boy named him Rocko was welcome into the family. This is the second child for Knoxville and the first for Naomi. Naomi and Knoxville got married on Semepter 24th, 2010 and still are together today. On October 6th, 2011, Naomi, Madison, Rocko & Johnny welcomed a brand new baby girl into their family and named her Arlo. He nearly died from a combination of flu, bronchitis and pneumonia, when he was 8 years old. He suffers from asthma on some occasions. He is a huge Johnny Cash fan and has made friends with him and bought a cabin that belonged to Cash. He posed for the front cover for the February edition of Rolling Stone magazine in 2001. Filmography * Desert Blues (1995) - Bob * Coyote Ugly (2000) - College Guy (uncredited) * Life Without Dick (2001) - Dick Rasmusson * Don't Try This At Home: The Steve-O Video (2001) - Himself * Big Trouble (2002) - Eddie Leadbetter * Deuces Wild (2002) - Vinnie Fish * Men In Black II (2002) - Scrad/Charlie * Jackass: The Movie (2002) - Himself/Irving Zisman * Grand Theft Parsons (2003) - Phil Kaufman * Walking Tall (2004) - Ray Templeton * A Dirty Shame (2004) - Ray Ray Perkins * Lords Of Dogtown (2005) - Topper Burks * The Dukes Of Hazzard (2005) - Luke Duke * The Devils Rejects (2005) - Cop (uncredited) * Daltry Calhoun (2005) - Daltry Calhoun * The Ringer (2005) - Steve Barker (Jeffy Dahmor) * Jackass: Number Two (2006) - Himself/Irving Zisman * Jackass 2.5 (2007) - Himself * Jackass 3D (2010) - Himself/Irving Zisman * Jackass 3.5 (2011) - Himself * The Last Stand (2013) - Lewis Dinkum * Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013) - Irving Zisman Category:American actors Category:Jackass Category:American Characters